I know, I'm not supposed to say things are wrong or difficult--they're just different. But things are more difficult when you don't know the "map" of how to function in this culture!

 

Everything seems to take longer than we think. The stress of living without a car and without hot water in the kitchen is wearing on us. It seems every time I take one step to simplify our lives I end up with 5 more steps--usually having undo what I thought was the right thing to do. Its taken me 5 weeks to find a plug for the kitchen sink!

 

Living in a culture that values conformity, we seem to get told "No" a lot. In a Pizza restaurant I asked for a pizza with half cheese and half pepperoni. I was told "No"! For legal reasons, I cannot reveal the name of the restaurant. (OK, it was Pizza Hut.) I explained, helpfully, that I wanted cheese all over the pizza and pepperoni on just half of the pizza. I was told, "No" again. I asked why not and he said the pizza base would be unbalanced! I did finally get my pizza, but they were not happy. They're probably right now telling stories about the insensitive foreigner!

 

Then we locked ourselves out. Apparently with the lock at our apartment if you leave the key on the inside, you cannot unlock it--even if you have the key!" It was a Friday night and we had been to a swim park. We returned home late, wet, and tired. I had the key, but it would not unlock the door. There is no other door, there are bars on the windows, and we're on the 6th floor. We called the agent, she came over and couldn't help. She called the landlord, he came over and couldn't unlock it. The locksmith arrived about 11:00pm, took one look and said something in Chinese that I took to mean: "There's nothing I can do, you're stuck!". Nevertheless he tried hammering and grinding on the lock with no avail until after midnight. Our kids were unbelievably tired and cranky--we weren't much better! We decided to leave and sleep in the apartment we had stayed in when we first arrived in Singapore, but could not get a key to there either. We started looking for a hotel around 1:00am. Tried five hotels and finally found one with a room with three beds that cost a kings ransom. The only thing we had to wear was our swimsuits, t-shirts and swimsuit cover-ups that we slept in. So the next morning we all troop down to breakfast in our swimsuits, t-shirts and cover-ups. I'll bet we're still providing conversation fodder for those folks!

 

 

A couple of months before we got here some students arrived from China--two families and two singles. The Christians in Singapore rallied around to provide them with household goods because they arrived with very little. When we were moving into our new apartment, our shipment had not arrived from the US, so we were planning to just "camp out". But the Chinese students said they were given extras of certain items and they offered them for us to use.

 

We gratefully received cutlery/silverware, plates, rice cooker, pots and pans, a kettle, and other items. Brigitte and I remarked on how these items were very good quality and very clean.

 

It was only later that we were told that because we were "lecturers" and they were "students", they had not given us the extra items they weren't using. Instead, they had gone through their kitchens and given us the very best they could spare!

 

In response to our profuse thanks, one of the Chinese students wrote to me: "It's our honor that we could help a little." Actually they are helping more than a little. I may have the title of lecturer in Missionary Anthropology, but the students are teaching us a lot.

 

 

This month's fruit is red and black with spikes. You twist off the skin and eat the white sweet pulp, but not the large pit inside.

 

Can name this fruit?